The invention relates to a tank shell for the transport of bulk material and, more particularly, to a tank shell for the transport of bulk liquid material.
Although the present invention may be used in connection with the railroad transport industry, it has particular applications in the trucking industry for the transport of bulk material such as fuel oil, gasoline and the like, and the tank shell of the present invention is particularly adapted to be mounted on the bed or frame of a truck, a trailer or a semi-trailer.
Transport tanks, especially for mounting on a truck frame, a trailer frame or a semi-trailer frame, are generally provided with filling means disposed on the top of the tank body and with a catwalk supported by the roof or top of the tank body for permitting a person to gain access to the filling means for filling the interior of the tank body with an appropriate bulk material. Steps, or a ladder, are disposed at one end of the body shell such as to permit a person to climb to the catwalk. At one end of the tank body, appropriate service equipment such as pumps, flow-meters and hoses wound on reels are disposed in a separate compartment accessible from the exterior by way of appropriate doors. The interior of the tank body may be compartmented, with separate filling means and separate distribution means such that two or more grades of fuel, for example, may be transported in a single tank body.
The present invention permits to do away with the conventional catwalk and steps or ladder by providing a longitudinally extending walkway, preferably on each side of the tank shell, such walkway being formed integrally in each lateral wall of the shell and forming an integral portion of the sheel structure. The walkways are formed at a convenient height, such as a height corresponding generally to the height of the dock of a bulk storage filling station, thus permitting a person to easily step over from the dock to the walkway when the tank vehicle is parked along the dock, for the purpose of opening and closing the filler domes and manipulating the nozzle of the filling overhead pipelines.